Discover what makes a great CPO, their key responsibilities, necessary skills, and innovative hiring models for your business's growth.
Harrison Bralower
Tech strategy for real-world startups, VC, and F500
Hi! I deliver real world products and operations that make everyday life possible. I've built transformative teams and products in every physical industry as employee #3, startup CEO/founder, VC diligence expert, and corporate transformation consultant.
My clients are the world's most impactful investors, manufacturers, and distributors including Walmart, Cargill, Analog Devices, Koch Industries, Crocs, Insight Partners, and General Motors.
Reach out anytime to discuss strategies and tactics for R&D, design and manufacturing, AI-powered operations, commercialization strategy, or enterprise go-to-market tactics.
Work
Taktile - IoT and Computer Vision for Manufacturing Optimization
I was CEO/Founder of a startup that developed IoT, AI, and computer vision solutions to measure and optimize custom goods production and retail distribution centers. I led all business development, go-to-market strategy, product management, and hardware (both mechanical and electrical) engineering.
We were a MassChallenge startup accelerator finalist in 2018, and were also finalists for the PepsiCo Business Services sidecar prize in the competition. I secured our first two enterprise customers including the largest grocer on the US East Coast, Ahold Delhaize. I grew our team to 9 including a sales partner, two engineers, a data scientist, and a design team.
I shut down the startup early 2020 when the covid pandemic changed our customers' priorities away from investing in new technologies and towards producing as much as possible with limited resources.
Carrier Security Robotics Solution
Solution architect for Carrier Security, which provides IoT security alarms for buildings. Their client, a global sporting goods retailer with 1700 locations, started using inventory scanning robots across their chain. However, these robots work overnight and constantly set off the security system, leading to work interruption and excess operations cost.
I worked with Carrier and the retailer to define a business case for investing in the technology, redesign business and technology workflows, and develop technology options for the technology architecture. The solution needed to integrate on-premise security system, cloud-hosted AI logic to detect the robot, integration to the cloud-hosted robotics system, integration to off-site emergency operations center, and integration to associate-facing mobile software applications.
The work allowed Carrier and their client to come to a technology solution and agree on terms for pricing and implementation.
Insight Partners Search Engine
I was team leader and product director for Insight Partners first custom operations technology project. We built a computer vision-powered search engine that ingested all of the firm's documents from CRM, Microsoft Sharepoint, proprietary market research, third-party databases, and other sources and could find any search term in any document, regardless of source or filetype.
Our team of 7 data engineers, software engineers, and designers launched the MVP in 3 months to a compliance team that needed this to automate their workflows. 3 months later, we released V1.0 to the entire firm so anyone could find what they were looking for.
The data foundations and back-end architecture for the search engine were extended to other products for automated market structure mapping, web browser extensions, and asset lifecycle management.
Walmart International Digital Facilities
I founded and led Walmart International's Digital Facilities program. This was a new team where I was responsible for developing our ways of working, roles and responsibilities, and innovation management processes. I also led 15 tech pilots in our team's first year. We specialized in IoT, computer vision, AR/VR, and robotics for associate and customer-facing applications.
Our work included inventory management solutions in Mexico, enterprise-scale HVAC/R and energy management platform in Canada, customer service automation in China, zero-touch checkout in Chile, and smart home automation and product recommendations in USA.
Cruise Issue Management System
I led automated issue identification and resolution process and technology redesign for Cruise, a General Motors company. This product centralizes intake of any vehicle, operations team, or customer-reported issue with a Cruise vehicle and automatically resolves it or dispatches appropriate assistance. The data foundations for this product also power self-service tools for Cruise operations and maintenance teams to use for vehicle debugging and repair.
Experience
Self-Employed
Independent Consultant
Mar 2016 - Present
Award-winning leader whose teams design, build, test, and launch new products. Experience from hardware to software, startups to Fortune 1, and the oldest industries to the new Focus Areas ●Emerging technology commercial strategy and solution architecture ●Innovation strategy for venture-backed startups, VC firms, management consulting firms, and corporates ●Product strategy, R&D, and launch with global teams and users ●Operations process and technology co-design ●Digital transformation and business process change management
- Solution architect for management consulting firm, leading technology and business process redesign of fleet operations issue management and emergency response platform for autonomous vehicle company
- Solution architect for F500 building tech firm, leading integration of intrusion system, AI logic engine, emergency operations center, and inventory management robotics for global sporting goods retailer
- Strategist for world’s largest industrial conglomerate, designing technology to predict and stop industrial accidents such as worker-vehicle collisions
- Solution architect for on-premise to cloud migration of IoT device fleet management platform for building sensors and access controls company
- Led product strategy, design, build, and launch for data platform and search engine at global venture capital firm
- Led organizational design, business process, and technology delivery capabilities study for global digital office of world's largest agriculture firm
- Advisor to CEO of leading Middle East meat and dairy CPG, leading technology studies for automating production, quality, B2B eCommerce, and retail operations
- Advisor to founders of venture-backed next-day grocery pickup startup. Worked with them on market entry strategy, partner onboarding, and fulfillment operations processes
Walmart
Sr Product Manager
Jul 2020 - Sep 2021
Walmart is the world's largest retailer. I helped start their new Emerging Technology group in the International division. We developed IoT, predictive AI, computer vision, AR/VR, and product recommendation solutions for global markets with a focus on Mexico, Canada, Chile, and China.
- Founder and Director of Digital Facilities program in Walmart International Emerging Technology, developing IoT, computer vision, AI, and robotics for operations automation in 25 global markets
- Conducted 15 technology pilots in team's first year with team of 20 US engineers and 40 India-based engineers; managed $1M direct spend
- Piloted AI-powered equipment condition monitoring and energy optimization solutions for HVAC/R and lighting in Canada
- Piloted zero-touch checkout in Chile, computer vision inspections in China and Mexico, AI-enabled facilities maintenance in Canada, and smart home in USA
- Developed team's ways of working, innovation management processes, engineering and product management processes, and PMO foundations
Taktile
CEO/Founder
Apr 2017 - Feb 2020
I founded Taktile to solve the problem of missing operations data in manual manufacturing and warehousing. Labor-intensive production often has low-quality or no data that operations leaders need to predict and solve problems before they get out of control. We developed IoT and computer vision solutions to indirectly measure when and where labor, materials, and simple equipment were used. We then developed reports and AI tools to help customers discover the hidden factory of broken and inefficient processes.
- Signed first two enterprise customers including largest grocer on US East Coast, grew team to nine
- Responsible for all business development, product management, and hardware engineering leadership and execution. Launched two hardware products in 3 months of engineering
- 2018: MassChallenge Boston accelerator finalist, PepsiCo Business Services Prize finalist
- 2019: Invite-only retail supply chain accelerator run by the largest grocer on the US East Coast
- Entrepreneur-in-Residence at The Engine Ventures ($200M MIT venture capital fund) Mar.-Sep. 2018,
SQZ Biotechnologies
Engineering Manager
Nov 2013 - Jan 2016
SQZ is an MIT spinout that uses cell squeezing technology to make personalized therapeutic drugs. They initially hired me to redesign their core hardware, then I went on to join as employee #3 and start their engineering group. I helped them get to Series A financing and securing their first major drug development deal worth $500M plus royalties. SQZ is currently in clinical trials with its first commercial product.
- Led engineering group, starting from third full-time employee to Series A funding and signing first major commercialization partnership
- P&L responsibility for engineering and direct supervision of five engineers and four manufacturing technicians
- Design and launch hardware for SQZ's flagship CellSqueeze platform for intracellular delivery of molecules directly to live cells
- Supplier development, selection, and management. Launched the company's first QA program.
- 2014 MassChallenge Diamond Prize and Scientific American Top 10 World-Changing Ideas
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